Grr Ger

One thing especially different about the Mongolian Capitol city of Ulaanbaatar, besides all the a’s, is the tents.  Here is a city of bout 1.2 million people filled with hundreds and hundreds Mongolian tents call “gers”.

My second night in Mongolia, as I mentioned in a previous post, I spent in a ger.  Mongolians are a nomadic people.   

One family I visited in Terelj park was in the process of moving their ger from the fall location to the winter location.  The winter location was more sheltered with a barn for the horses and better winter pasture.  What’s to keep you from moving?

The inside of the ger has strict boundaries.  The big circle of wood in the middle is supported by two posts, the male to the west, the female post to the east, and the door always facing south.  The “women’s side has the cooking facilities, simple as they are. The male side has lassos, computer monitors, and big car batteries.

The wall of the gers are filled with felt insulation against the cold.  In the days of open fires the wooden wheel at the top was open most of the time, but a flap could be closed with ropes in rain or snow.  Modern gers, including some with satellite dishes, have metal stoves and stove pipes.  These stoves burn wood and coal and serve for all the cooking.  The wooden wheel is usually covered in clear plastic to let in more light, and one section is built to accept the stove pipe without catching fire.

Most gers are about the same size.  I’d guess them at 15-16 feet in diameter.  The walls are about 5 feet high, but the pitched top means normal-height people can walk around comfortably inside.

In the USA, we want over 2500 square feet for a family of three or four.  In the gers, you get about 240 square feet total for cooking, sleeping, visiting, entertaining, and working when the weather is bad.

We think more is better.  We think having a house large enough to ensure everyone’s privacy is essential  There is no privacy in the ger.  People can be happy with less, much less.

Materialism is typically a curse.  Soon our possessions possess us.  Houses must be maintained, inside and out.  Lawns must be mowed and fertilized, edged, and raked.  Autos must be service, washed and waxed.  Possessions take time, energy and money.  Money takes time.  Time is money, and time given to our possessions is not available for other things, such as people or G^d.

G^d, save us from our stuff, and ourselves!